iv. Manila is akin to Tokyo.

The moment we touched down Central Station, the madness began. Being used to the LRT station in our country, we were totally caught off guard with Manila’s.

By the way, there will be no picture in this post. Lololololol!

Feeling totally thirsty and dehydrated from the short trip, we made a quick stop at the drink stall. Weird enough, there were two stalls but most of us seemed to buy only from that particular one. Those who weren’t thirsty quickly went up to the counter and buy tickets for the rest. A trip to EDSA LRT station costs 15 pesos (RM1.10).

The rest caught up and all of us eagerly waited for the next train. We smartly divided ourselves and quickly boarded the train. For the entire journey from Central to EDSA, we were entertained by this guy who blasted songs on loudspeaker. The songs were actually catchy and we even hummed to one of the songs as we heard that before but can’t remember the title. Lol!

When we reached EDSA station, we immediately got down and walked closely behind Hannah. It was super packed at EDSA and Taft Avenue and we can’t move as quickly as we wanted to. Though these two stations are situated just next to each other, but it took ages to get there during peak hour.

And my, the queues at the ticket counters were super long! Hannah queued to get ticket for all of us and we waited at the side for her. When she came to get us, all of us immediately clocked in our tickets and walked down to the train boarding area.

The train was there but it was already packed with people. Knowing that we couldn’t afford to miss this train, we ran forward to the fewer compartments. Little did I know that after May and I got into one, the door closed right behind us! When I turned to the back, I gasped in horror because Sat and the rest didn’t get into the train!

And then my cute Sat did the sad puppy face and walked a little bit as the train moved. Ahhh, my heart melted at that moment. <3

May and I weren’t devastated as we knew that we can quickly get back to the hotel first and got the bags down for the rest. But the thing was, we didn’t know how many managed to get on train. So we just waited and prayed that the next train came quickly.

The compartment we were in was already packed and when we reached the next station, we felt relieved a bit because there were more people getting down than getting in.

Things were about to change as when the door opened again at the next station, people just rushed in like that and pushed like nobody’s business! They would push and push as though the push could automatically create a gap for them to get in. But the thing is, it can’t and we had to yell STOP PUSHING to them. How I wish I know how to say ‘stop pushing’ in Tagalog then I could use it at that moment.

The worst thing was May and I were the only ladies there and we were totally surrounded by guys! That goodness they weren’t stink!

When the train moved basically didn’t have to hold on to anything because there were human cushions everywhere.

Luckily I had my DSLR around my neck so that bulky camera sort of gave me a protection in front. As for my back, there seemed like a gap (I don’t know how and why) so thankfully nobody’s ass or thing brushed again my back.

As for May, she got her bag in front but there’s this petite man totally squashed behind her. Thankfully this man has a sling bag in front of him.

We were sardined so badly that we hoped that the train would immediately fly to Boni Avenue. I almost miscalculated one station, but luckily we managed to see the signboard BONI. We shouted EXCUSE ME pretty loudly and quickly alighted from that sardine train. Boy were we glad to breathe in fresh air and able to move our arms about freely.

We were relieved to find that Steven, Jess and Hannah also managed to get in same train. Hannah then asked us to walk back to the hotel first while she waited for the rest there. We agreed and immediately headed back to GoHotels.

Not long after reaching GoHotels and helping the rest to pack their stuffs into their backpacks (as they unloaded some earlier), the rest reached the hotel too. We then immediately checked out and went downstairs to board taxi. Because the taxi could only fit 8 person maxima with backpacks, we had no choice but to get another one.

Two taxies then raced to the airport, but the terrible traffic in EDSA expressway itself was pretty bad. It took us 15 minutes to make a U-turn to get to the EDSA and more than half an hour to get to the airport. Seeing the bad jam, I began to pray for the flight delay as I read before that Cebu Pacific is popular for that. We hoped that the traffic would miraculously be smooth and we could speed all the way to the airport.

AL asked, what happened if we missed the flight. That’s my worst fear. But I told her, if we missed, then we’ll take the bus – that’s the backup plan. We asked if we could directly go to the bus terminal instead of heading to the airport. I told her that it’s not in our say right now because maybe Hannah and Sat manage to check us in. It’s hard to communicate in this type of situation. She nodded.

Despite the bad jam, our taxi was pretty fast. We managed to reach there earlier; however we couldn’t conduct any check-in because the itinerary was in the other taxi. We waited for the rest. May took a peek at the flight information – it showed Closed. But I was still hopeful.

The rest came. They immediately rushed to the counter. The situation that time was pretty tensed. Hannah spoke to the lady in Tagalog and pleaded her to ask them to hold the plane as it was still on the runway even though the flight information already showed Departed. The lady reluctant to help. The next best thing she could do was to put us on the flight the next day as that was the last flight of the day.

Seeing this, Sat asked Hannah to stop persuading her and tell her that it’s okay to miss the flight. We could see Hannah felt bad but we told her that we were totally okay with missing the flight. In fact, I think missing this flight made us even closer. There’s like a new, silence bond created between us.

I also think that this incident somehow proved that we are adventurous and flexible, and also made us closer to the local than we expected. That point, I’ll unravel in my next post.

To lighten everyone’s mood, off and on someone would crack a joke and everyone would just laugh. Ahh, it’ so nice to travel with such kakis.

If you think that our trip is totally ruined by missing the flight, you’re totally wrong. We have backup plan in our sleeves. Muahaha! This plan is actually our initial plan, but we swapped it since we got a good flight deal.

So, first time we did was to freshen ourselves at the airport’s bathroom. I took off my contacts knowing that the airport’s bathroom is the cleanest I could find. I know that if I were to go to the bus terminal one to take them off, I would rather have them in my eyes for 8 hours! Lol!

We knew that we have to be at the bus terminal as soon as possible; so Hannah went about asking the local for the price of 2 taxies to bus terminal. We then took out 180 pesos (RM13.14) each for the ride.

Divided ourselves into 2 groups, we went to Partas bus terminal in two Grand Livina taxies. The traffic began to clear but the ride wasn’t that smooth as the driver kept accelerate and break. We almost have numerous heart attacks in the car because of the way he drove. @_@

The moment I got out of the taxi, I was having this rocking motion where my body would automatically move front and back. I don’t know if it was all in my head or my body was really doing that but I do know that I had that because of all the acceleration and breaking that the taxi driver did. -.-“